


lilac light

by concreteskies



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Florist AU, This is vaguely inspired by Imagine Me and You, and it's v gay, it also has a little bit of sanvers in it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 15:11:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9277526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/concreteskies/pseuds/concreteskies
Summary: In which Lena is a florist, Kara and her are becoming friends, and a lot of flower tropes are explored.





	

“ _the dawn glancing off of the flowers_  
leaves me drunk on nothing and on lilac light—  
drunk on immobility and truth”  
  
\- Alejandra Pizarnik

 

 

The first time Kara Danvers stepped into her store was a Friday, the world outside was cast in a bright light and everything, even the gaps, were illuminated. Lena remembers the way it took her breath away the first time she saw Kara smile, this smile like a blossoming crocus, open onto the sun.

She remembers this first visit clearly. Remembers the way she had told Kara everything about the mythology of gladiolas and the enigma of the blue rose and the way Kara had listened to her every word. She remembers their first good-bye. Remembers Kara turning around in the door, and the way she’d asked, “Can I come back?”

And she remembers herself saying yes.

xx

The second time Kara Danvers came into her store, she brought her hot cocoa and asked her about the story behind daisies. She remembers making her laugh for the first time. She remembers how everything seemed so very alight right then.

xx

The third time Kara Danvers came by, they talked about English gardens and the architecture of flowers and Lena remembers smiling when Kara touched her hand as she was saying something earnest. Lena remembers Kara telling her “see you next week” instead of goodbye this time and she remembers putting a chair out for her after this.

xx

The fourth time Kara Danvers came by, she told her they were friends and it made Lena’s heart swell up until she could feel it beating against her ribs. She’d never had a friend. All her life she’d been tulip-like, petals closed, wearing her skin like an armor. And Kara is light and open and almost unbearably bright. Kara is the sweetness of jasmine and the kindness of magnolia and Lena thinks for the first time that she is not sure she deserves this.

xx

Fall is beginning to tinge the city in soft orange, leaves swirl low across the pavement and there is the aftertaste of rain still laced into the air the next time Lena’s door is being pushed open and Kara steps through.

She’s wearing a scarf about three sizes too big for her and her hands are wrapped around two carrier cups of what Lena imagines to be hot cocoa.

“Hey,” Kara struggles to push the door back shut without having to let go of the cups and Lena quickly moves across the shop to help her.

“A day like this demands hot cocoa so I bought us some,” Kara beams and hands her one of the cups.

“Thank you, that’s very thoughtful.”

“Oh it’s nothing.” Kara shrugs off her coat. “What have you been up to?”

She moves through the shop and over to the two chairs now placed behind her counter. She sinks down on the one that become hers and leans back, as she always does, and breathes in deeply the scent of flowers and plants hanging in the air.

“Nothing much. Cut some flowers, got rid of wilting leaves, you know.”

Kara nods, sipping her hot cocoa with an expression of pure enjoyment on her face.

“How about you? How was work?” Lena picks up a couple of leaves that have fallen off her rhododendron plant as she moves to sit next to her friend.

“Oh you know, my boss didn’t yell at me so I’m calling it a win.”

Lena laughs at this, low and melodious. It’s a gentle thing of a laugh that has become a part of her ever since Kara stepped into her store for the first time. And she still marvels at the taste it leaves in her mouth, the way it feels whenever her lips curve upwards like this. Like it’s easy.

“What flower is this one?” Kara asks then, shaking her out of her thoughts.

She is pointing at the bouquet of flowers she has placed on her counter because there would have been no other use for them. They are scarlet red, tied with a soft blue ribbon, and placed in a mason jar.

“They’re amaryllis,” she answers, gently reaching out for the flowers to pluck off a couple of wilted leaves that have been tinted into a faded brown color.

She takes a sip of her cocoa, waiting for Kara to ask her next question. They’ve fallen into this routine quickly and Lena cherishes this. Cherishes having someone to have a Friday afternoon tradition with.

“What’s their story?”

“Right so,” she leans back a little in her chair, “there was a girl called Amaryllis and she was, as it always is, in love with a boy. He however, was very cold-hearted and rejected every single one of her advances.” Lena takes a sip of her cocoa, relishing the look of excited impatience on Kara’s face. “The heartbreak eventually caused her to stab her heart with a golden dagger. She continued to visit the boy in his village every day to ask him for his love, blood leaking out wherever she went. On the thirteenth day of her misery, scarlet red flowers started blossoming wherever her blood fell on the path.” Lena can hear Kara’s silent gasp at this and smiles. “The boy was so enamored by this that he finally accepted her love and by doing that healed her heart.”

They sit in silence for a second, both of them looking at the beautiful flowers displayed in front of them. This beauty that has come from so much pain. Lena has always loved amaryllis the best.

“So it always comes down love, doesn’t it?” Kara voice is only a whisper, sounding like it belongs behind cupped hands like a secret.

And Lena nods, looking over at her, at the way her hands are wrapped around her cup, hair still a little tousled from the wind outside, and nods again.

“I guess it’s the only thing that really matters in the end.”

xx

The next Friday, Kara stays over until late. The city outside is already cast in darkness, the sign Lena’s door switched so that it reads the word _“_ closed”. Kara is sitting in her chair with her legs folded underneath herself, warming her hands on a cup of tea Lena brought down from her upstairs apartment.

“So anyway, I think I really like Maggie actually.” Kara’s been telling her all about her sister and new girlfriend, pretty much constantly in argument with herself because she really does like Maggie but she is also prepared to “punch her in the face” if she ever hurts Alex. Lena laughed at Kara’s threat. It had taken her almost a minute to come up with it and she had furrowed her brow adorably as she had said it. She’s probably the least menacing person Lena has ever come across and it’s kind of funny actually.

“I just hope she makes Alex happy. She deserves to be happy so much.”

Lena nods. She’s never met Kara’s sister but from her stories, she seems to be everything you could want from an older sibling: Protective, kind, always there.

She is glad Kara knows to appreciate it too. Lena hasn’t told her much about Lex. She must know things from the papers and news reports that went around at the time. But she’d never pushed her into telling and Lena is grateful for that. She hasn’t spoken about it in all those years and sometimes she worries that if she ever opens her mouth about it, she’ll just start screaming and won’t be able to stop.  

“And they want me to go out with them,” Kara says next, successfully tearing her out of her gloomier thoughts. “They apparently hang out at this bar a lot and play pool or something.”

“You sound enthusiastic,” Lena laughs.

“Well, I don’t know… this bar is their thing you know?”

Lena nods, allowing her to go on.

“I feel like I’d be intruding… I don’t know,” she takes another sip of her horrendously sweetened tea. Seriously, four tea spoons of sugar. In one innocent cup of tea.

“Hey, do you wanna come?” Lena’s eyes fly up to Kara’s face in seconds, her state of alarm surely visible on her face.

“What?”

“You know, you can be my person,” Kara says, unaware of how it makes Lena’s breath catch inside her throat. “We can hang out there, have some fun?” Kara seems about one step away from either begging or pouting, almost pleading her to come along.

“Okay,” she says then, “I can be your person.”

xx

Alex isn’t like Lena imagined her to be at all. But then again, she mostly imagined her to be exactly like Kara.

Alex is more edges though, with something softer seeping in whenever she speaks to Kara or touches Maggie’s hand. Lena likes her, likes the way she smiles like it means something.

Alex is wary of her at first and she can feel it like it is something palpable. Kara’s sister is aware that she is a Luthor. She knows of her family. And while Kara undoubtedly does too, she just doesn’t seem to care. Which is something scarce. And nothing Lena has ever explored before: a chance to make her own first impression. A chance to be Lena before she is a Luthor.

She doesn’t hold it against Alex though. She is used to proving herself. And she understands wanting to protect Kara. She understands that better than she likes to admit.

“I’m just saying that there’s nothing wrong with watching a Rom Com every now and then,” Maggie says right then. They have been arguing about their preferences of film genres for about ten minutes now. Alex is adamant that horror movies are the greatest cinematic experience you could ever hope for and Maggie tries to argue in favor for literally anything else.

Kara is sat next to her around the small bar table, watching the two of them bicker like it is a tennis match. It is kind of amusing actually.

“Just admit that you are scared and we can watch something else,” Alex says then, a devilish smile playing across her lips.

“I’m not scared,” she says indignantly, looking over at Lena like she is saying “tell her I’m not scared”. And Lena glances over at Kara for a second in search for any help on how to react. Is she supposed to react? But Kara just laughs and continues to watch in fascination.

Alex turns to Lena and Kara in reaction to her girlfriend’s denial then. “She is so scared,” she informs them in the voice of a reporter.

“I just don’t see the appeal. They’re all the same.”

“And yet you jump about five meters high whenever something even remotely scary happens.”

Maggie grumbles at that and Kara takes a handful of the nuts that are displayed in a small bowl in the middle of the table. She hands Lena a couple of them and leans in close, close enough that Lena can feel her breath dancing across her cheek (not that she is paying attention to that of course.)

“This is better than anything any movie genre could ever offer,” she whispers conspiratorially and Lena hums a laugh at that. She’s not wrong.

“They should have their own Sit-Com,” she replies.

“Oh god yes, in style of the office. Alex would be great at looking directly in the camera and rolling her eyes.”

Lena looks at her for a good five seconds, “This means nothing to me.”

Kara stares at her with such shock at this that she almost has to laugh.

“It is my mission from now on to introduce you to the wonders of modern television, Lena.” Kara proclaims.

Lena just smiles at this. She can get on board with this mission.

xx

They discuss her job for a while after the discussion of film genres has broken down. They discuss her meeting Kara, her other customers and flowers.

It’s good. Maggie smiles at her a lot and she can see her nudging Alex underneath the table.

It’s only when the conversation turns to science though that Alex seems to actually warm up to her. They discuss the technology of gamma rays for a while and she can practically feel the tension breaking.

“So how come you know so much about science?” Alex asks inevitably.

“So because I ‘m a florist I can’t also be interested in physics and technology?” She asks, a smirk playing across her lips as Alex tries to back paddle.

“No, no I mean-“

“It’s okay,” she laughs. “I was always interested in science. I just never wanted to do it as a job.” She can feel the familiar tuck in her chest, memories of Lex washing over her as they usually do. Science used to be their shared thing and sometimes it still hurts. It’s funny how a lot of people seem to think science is cold and calculated, because for her it’s always been linked to either one of two things: companionship or the way it hurts to lose someone.

Kara seems to notice the way the shadows start to creep in on her because her leg brushes against Lena’s, knees touching as she says, “You’re such a nerd.” Her voice is fond and light and Lena sees the concern shining in her eye and manages to shake herself out of her memories. She gives her a small but genuine smile and a light chuckle at her comment.

“I wasn’t just into sciences though, I also did cheerleading at boarding school,” she says and watches as Kara sputters on her drink a little before dissolving into a fit of coughs.

What she doesn’t see however is the way Alex and Maggie glance at each other. She doesn’t see them grinning either.

xx

She’s still not sure how Kara managed to convince her to do this. She doesn’t really dance. In her family they were dignified, or so she was told. They were rigid and stood tall. They didn’t dance.

And yet here she is, not even on the dance floor but queuing for a round of Dance Dance Revolution. Kara almost squealed when she had seen the dance stage, people already dancing on it, stepping on the arrows and marks on the machine.

“We have got to do that, Lena!” She had shouted and her voice had been so full of glee, so light and enthusiastic, and when Kara had finally grabbed hold of her hand, fingers intertwining with hers, all her doubts had went out of the window.

They are the next pair to go up and Kara still hasn’t let go of her hand. It’s warm and sure and Lena hates that the people up on the stage are doing such a terrible job at dancing, constantly missing arrows, because that means they’ll be done much quicker and it’ll be time for them to go up and hence, for Kara to let go of her hand.

She kicks off her heels before they go up and doesn’t even have time to regret this, when the music starts. It’s an old nineties song she’s heard before in boarding school. It’s surprisingly easy to fall in tune with and move along with the directions on the monitor.

She chances a glance at Kara then and finds her already beaming back at her.

“You’re really good!” Kara shouts over the music and laughs as she missteps on one of the plates.

Lena finds herself laughing despite her will, a laugh that starts somewhere deep inside and climbs up into her mouth before it is set free. She can feel it warming her up, feels her whole body engage in the smile.

Kara reaches out her hands then, grabs both of Lena’s and spins them around so they switch position.

She is dimly aware of people cheering at this move behind them, but is too focused on the way Kara is still smiling at her to pay close attention to them.

“That was amazing,” Kara tells her when they finally step down from the pedestal to rejoin the couple at their table.

“It was certainly something,” Lena agrees.

Kara’s hand touches her shoulder then and squeezes it lightly. “Thank you for doing this with me.”

“Any time,” she replies and thinks that she’d do most anything if Kara asked her for it. And she doesn’t really know what to do about this knowledge.

Because she’s never had this. (The smiling, the touching, the way her chest feels like this could be her drowning.)

And she knows she is falling for Kara Danvers. Has known for quite a while now.

And she’s just so tired of being reduced to this. A girl. In love with a girl. Never quite good enough to be loved back.

**Author's Note:**

> Let's play "catch the imagine me and you reference".  
> Anyway thank you so much for reading, I really hope you enjoyed it so far!!  
> tumblr: dancingontiptoes  
> twitter: concreteskies


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